Extreme weather damage in Netherlands lower than expected
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Xinhua, June 30, 2011
Extreme weather led to trouble in the Netherlands on Tuesday evening, but the damage was not as huge as was feared.
Heavy rain, hailstorms, strong winds and hundreds of lightning strikes on different locations brought down trees, caused flooding. Gas lines were cut off in some places, cars were damaged and rail traffic was disrupted. The southern province of North Brabant was most affected.
"The damage will amount to several million euros", spokesman Geertje Janssen of the Dutch Association of Insurers told Xinhua.
"If you compare it to previous bad weather situations, that is not much. The difference is that this was not a storm, but we had some strong local winds."
In the past five years, the Netherlands experienced three extreme weather conditions. On January 18, 2007, the storm damage was 20 million euros (28.5 million U.S. dollars).
On June 22, 2008, a hail caused 100-million-euro (140-million-U.S. dollar) damage and on May 26, 2009, another hail cost the country another 25 million euros (35.6 million U.S. dollars).
On Tuesday, the Dutch weather institute KNMI gave a warning of severe weather with heavy winds and hail. After the midnight, the warning was withdrawn.
"Especially in some areas the damage is considerable, but in the entire country is was not too bad," said Janssen.
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